Outside spawn

[Oldfishlady]

Outside in a 5g bucket that collects rainwater and that I keep native oak leaves in that also had a massive amount of mosquito larva.
I also placed some live plants in this bucket-hygrophila, water lettuce, ludwigia from a trimming to give them something to hide in.
I placed 2 female bettas to condition them for breeding after two days I placed the male betta with them and they started the spawning dance the second I placed the male in the bucket
Within 30 min he was spawning with both females
This bucket gets about 6 hours of sunlight, water temp in the upper level is 82F
You can even see some eggs on top of the leaf
Here is a pic of the nest

[NIB BETTA]

Wow. When you think about it, this is as close as you can get to a natural environment. Is this your first time using this method? What do you do about water changes?

[Zoelie]

That's really cool :D Never seen an outside spawn before ^.^

[dramaqueen]

It sounds very interesing. Keep us posted.

[Oldfishlady]

Yes, this is the first time I tried it in a 5g bucket, I spawned some last spring and summer in a 250g tank outside...... it was kinda a last minute thing I decided to do, I had trouble getting this male to spawn and the females both were ready and thought I would try and it worked.
Due to all the rain we have been getting the mosquito are thick in all my 5g rainwater/oak leaf buckets (20) I am collecting and freezing and feeding them as fast as I can....

I just checked on them and the male is tending the nest and keeping the 2 females away and they don't seem that interested in the nest anyway.
I am going to keep them all together for now...but I think I may pull the eggs as they hatch, still not sure what I am going to do yet, kinda play-it-by-ear......lol......

I won't be making any water changes since it will get refreshed every time it rains and it has been raining 2-3 times a week, I placed screen on an overflow hole so that the fish are not washed out of the bucket.

[indjo]

1. Did you say the male spawned with both females? .... wow... never saw that before.
2. You're using direct rain water? Mine always die if I do that..... why?
3. I would remove the females before the eggs hatch... just in case.

BTW I use buckets too; D 50-55cm (+/-) height 25 cm, filled to 5 - 10 cm water + plants 1/4 - 1/2 of bucket.

Good Luck. Keep us posted.

[Campbell]

This is really interesting. I can't wait to see how everything turns out.

[Oldfishlady]

Yes, they both spawned with him and they spawned again yesterday, I was going to remove the females but I really have them in the bucket for skeeter control because they are so bad this year, and I had so much trouble with this male getting him to spawn for me and now he doesn't have a choice because the females are pretty aggressive and want to spawn.
I am leaving the eggs and fry that have hatched and removing him today to spawn him again in a couple of days for the fry in a controlled environment.

I don't expect the fry to survive, but they may, the water is dark brown from the tannins of the oak leaves and full of life-so I know they will have plenty of food and hiding places, it was two good females and a male so the fry will be quality and a neat experiment on several levels.

In my area I feel the rainwater is safe, but when you change the fish to rain water it has to be done slow so not to shock them from the different chemistry in the water, I do it over about an hour or two depending on if I had been keeping the Betta in the house in rainwater or not, I test pH, GH, KH, nitrate and temp...too sudden changes can kill the fish.

You may want to try testing your rainwater and source water after it has been aerated for 24 hours and equalize them by adding rainwater to the source water and Betta until it is 100% rainwater and see if that works.

[indjo]

I hope there aren't any dragon fly larva or other predatory life in there.

IMO; some of them should survive, at least the first month. Currently I don't really take care of my fry. I depend on infusoria for the first week then dump in some tubifex worms and daphnia. I get an average of 30 - 50. So with your condition, they should survive.

[Oldfishlady]

I hear ya on the dragonfly larva...laffs.....and I am sure there are some, but when small the adult Bettas will eat them, but I lost nearly all of a spawn last year from a hidden DF larva in my spawning tank that the male failed to eat, DF larva grow out nicely on Betta fry and guppy fry as well as grown guppies...the perils of feeding live home grown foods....good and bad...and a creepy looking critter too.......